![[Sugar-Free] Monterey Marinade](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/715/33423824356_b3a2f6aa6f_z.jpg "[Sugar-Free] Monterey Marinade")
I like to marinate meats in a bbq type/Tex Mex marinade when using them in fajitas, bbq, etc. (Even if I am adding bbq sauce at cooking time, I still love that flavor-infusion from marinading in this mixture!)
I usually make my bbq sauce (plenty for whatever I am bbq’ing) then take out a cup of it for the first Monterey Marinade choice below.
If you do not want to make the bbq sauce or you are not bbq’ing (in the case of wanting to marinate beef strips for fajitas or something that you are not going to need bbq sauce for), you can use Monterey Marinade #2 given below (using my BBQ Sauce Base). Both recipes give you a moist meat with a hint of Tex-Mex!
And they both marinate a lot of meat—depending on how much marinade you like to use. I have marinaded up to fifteen pounds of mixed chicken pieces with each of the recipes given below.
Don’t forget to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page for this recipe’s helpful Recipe Keys!
Below are links to the ingredients I use in these recipes. I am an affiliate for Amazon.com. If you click on the links below I will earn a small commission. Thank you for your support of this blog!
- 1 cup olive oil or melted butter (Or sub half wine/half broth or all wine/all broth if using chicken with skin or other fatty meat in which you do not want to add more fat.)
- 1 to 2 cups broth (depending on how much marinade you need/how much meat you are marinating)
- 1 cup sugar-free bbq sauce (Try mine here!)
- Whisk all ingredients together.
- Marinate chicken pieces, pork loin slices, etc. as desired.
- Do not use extra marinade after you remove the meat unless you cook it first. (You may desire to cook the used marinade in the microwave for several minutes in order to use it on the meat at serving time.)
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I love to precook meats before grilling and marinate before precooking! Sometimes I just marinate the meat (putting in s few pieces of meat then some marinade then repeat til done) right in my crick insert then put marinade and all on to partially cook before firing up the grill!
- 1 cup olive oil or melted butter (Or sub half wine/half broth or all wine/all broth if using chicken with skin or other fatty meat in which you do not want to add more fat.)
- 2 cups broth
- ¼ cup BBQ Sauce Base
- 4 ounces tomato sauce
- ¼ cup bulk sugar substitute (Splenda, erythritol, or xylitol—use a granulated one that measures cup-for-cup in place of sugar)
- Drop or two of molasses
- 2 tspliquid smoke
- Whisk all ingredients together.
- Marinate chicken pieces, pork loin slices, etc. as desired.
- Do not use extra marinade after you remove the meat unless you cook it first. (You may desire to cook the used marinade in the microwave for several minutes in order to use it on the meat at serving time.)
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Recipe Keys
Low Carb (LC): Yep! Family-Friendly Low Carb (FFLC): My family loves meats marinated in one of these mixtures!
Store-Bought-Stella (SBS: Come on, Stella, join the low carb mixes bandwagon! 🙂
Homemade Hannah (HH): You may desire to omit the liquid smoke if you do not like using processed condiments.
Freezer Cooking (FC): Sometimes I make marinades (one of these and others) and place my prepared meat (chopped, sliced, cubed…whatever) in a labeled zipper bag and pour the marinade over the meat and freeze! Then when I need that meat, I just defrost in the sink or the fridge (chicken always in fridge) and allow the meat to marinade as it defrosts. Then I am ready to use it! (This is actually the basis for many of those “Eighty-Five Freezer Meals in One Day” type of posts in which different sauces and marinades are prepared and meats are frozen raw in the sauces. I am not a big fan of too many of those simply because I like many of my freezer meals to be more ready than that—and I like freezer entrees that are more “all in one meal” types, like lasagna (make it with my crepes here!), enchiladas, etc.)
Oldie Goldie Family Recipes (OG): I have always (at least for the twenty-four years that I have been freezer cooking and mix making!) done the type of marinade and freeze described in the FC note. I just haven’t always done it low carb! Feels so good to find ways to do some familiar favorites of days gone by in healthier ways!
Trim Healthy Mama-Friendly (THM) (www.trimhealthymama.com): This can be S, E, or FP! Make it as is for an S (with the oil/butter—it does help the marinade infuse the meat more!). Make it an E or an FP without the oil or butter (with more broth or with cooking wine).
Cycle Cooking (CYC): To use this in my cycle cooking, I would probably either use it in my “shaped cycle”—pieces of beef and/or pork that I cook up all in one day for a special purpose or for meals that week or for the freezer. Or I would do chicken breast chunks for the freezer (frozen in the marinade as described). I seldom do two or three “kinds of meat” together since my cycle cooking involves all “crumbled ground beef” or “shaped meat” (meatloaves, meat balls, pieces of meat {like swiss steak, pork loin, etc.}) or “shredded chicken” or “sides” or “chicken breasts.” I find it more efficient to do all one meat type at once and make various meals out of that one type!
Sugar Free (SF): My Sugar-Free Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce is sugar free as is my BBQ Sauce Base! So either way, this marinade is sugar free!
Gluten Free (GF): Yes! (Again, assuming that you have the condiments and ingredients this recipe calls for in gluten-free.)
Low Carb Mixes (LCM): The BBQ Sauce Base that is the basis for this marinade is a super handy “mix” that you will probably use time and time again. (Watch for future recipes using it!)
